CHICAGO — Those going to the Chicago/Earth, Wind and Fire concert Friday night at the United Center should be on the look out for a horse with no rider.
That horse would be the "Chicago Horse" artwork dedicated to the memory of the late Chicago Police Department Officer Thomas E. Wortham IV, who was killed in May of 2010. The piece is available for sale, according to the Chicago Police Memorial Fund.
The artwork was commissioned by the Chicago’s longtime manager, Peter Schivarelli as part of the fund's Horses of Honor initiative. That effort featured life-sized police horse statues created to raise funds to assist the foundation to help the families of fallen and severely injured Chicago police officers.
“We love this horse! [Artist] Peter Bucks did a wonderful job designing it,” Schivarelli said in a statement posted on the fund's web site.
“We all felt that this project was so important that the entire band wanted to lend our name and raise awareness for this important cause,” he said. “It was also important for us to honor Thomas who served two tours overseas in the military only to be tragically killed back home in Chicago.”
Wortham was gunned down outside the family's Chatham home during a botched robbery. Three men were found guilty in the murder.
At the trial of the third last year, Wortham's father testified how his son had stopped by his parents' house to show them his new motorcycle and photos from a recent trip to Washington D.C., his father testified.
As the 30-year-old Wortham left that evening, four men allegedly tried to steal his motorcycle at gunpoint. According to prosecutors, one pointed a gun at Wortham head while others pointed a gun at the off-duty officer's body. Two others acted as lookouts, prosecutors said.
Wortham told the would-be robbers he was a police officer before eventually pulling his gun and opening fire, according to court testimony. The attackers fired back. "There was instantaneous gunfire," his father testified.
At that point, the father a retired Chicago Police officer, ran inside and "told my wife they had shot Tommy, call police," he testified.
"I saw my son's gun in the street," the father said. "[My son] was just lying there in the street."
He leaned down to his son.
"I told him it would be all right, just hold on," the 68 year old father testified. "He said, 'It hurts.'"
He told reporters later, "Tommy was not just my son. He was my fishing and golf partner and my friend in life."
